A whirlwind of quilty things...

Seems like I've been running from one project or class to the next lately. In the middle of all this I am trying to finish up a handful of t-shirt quilts before Christmas and keep up on my Farmers Wife Sampler duties for upcoming classes.

Here's what I've been up to:
On Oct. 14 I attended the Karen Witt (Reproduction Quilts) trunk show in Oblong. It was great, and I glad I made it. She had a great sampler quilt I purchased a pattern for and I love how she used the backing fabric for the binding by rolling it over to the front of the quilt and hand sewing it in place. I know this is an old method, and I would love to learn how to do it because it left such a clean and soft edge.

on Oct. 16 I took my machine to Lori's in Paris to get some tips on machine quilting. I was using too heavy a thread in the bobbin and my tension was way of. Now I have lots of troubleshooting tips to try: lighter thread in bobbin, if you use heavier thread in bobbin use the speciality bobbin case, move your tension...etc.

Oct. 17 was the wool applique class in Oblong with Karen Witt. The project I chose was the pumpkin table runner. I have just a bit of experience with wool applique and it has been all self-taught. So, it was good to get some tips from someone in the know. I've been working on really small wool appliques for a wall hanging quilt and this was a nice break to use larger pieces!

This past Tuesday night was also the first meeting of the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle at Main Street Quilt Co. It was THE BEST class I have ever been to. I enjoyed myself immensely. We'll be working on small quilt projects, learning how to how to hand piece, etc. We made yo-yos while we worked last night 'cause we'll need more than 60 for a project that will come at the end of the series. Making those are kind of addictive...like making hexagons.

While I'd love to be working on our first project for that class right now, I need to finish up two Harley t-shirt quilts. My blocks are cut to 15" squares and I need to finish my sashing and cornerstones before I sew them together.

This weekend I am totally free and will continue working on the FWSQ blocks for our November class and hopefully work on the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle project.

For those who are using Arnold's Attic for their FWSQ, here is another posting on Barbara Brackman's blog about the fabric. More interesting information, just click here to go there!

Whew. That's enough for now.
-Sarah